The holidays are here. The shopping...the food... and beautiful music. One Birmingham woman reflects on how her cat launched her writing career. And, latin rhythm from Birmingham band Jazza-Nova...I'm Greg Bass, and this is Tapestry.

It's the holiday season and each year about this time the Advent Episcopal School performs its Service of Lessons and Carols at the Advent Cathedral in downtown Birmingham. Here is Angles' Carol, composed by John Rutter and performed by the Advent Choral Ensemble.

The ensemble performs Lessons and carols tomorrow morning at 9:00 and again Sunday afternoon at 3:00 at the Advent Cathedral in downtown Birmingham.

Nancy Kucik has been a writer much of her professional life, but mostly marketing and promotional materials. In her free time, though, she'd write about her cat Laser. She'd tucked the stories away until one day, as she tells WBHM's Tanya Ott, a friend encouraged her to share them with the publishers of the Chicken Soup series.

Nancy Kucik's essay on her cat Laser appears in Chicken Soup for the Cat Lover's Soul, which is available in bookstores and through the Hand-in-Paw website. You can find a link on our website, wbhm.org. Kucik says she's already polishing up some of her other short-stories about Laser's therapy work for inclusion in other magazines.

What's going on in and around the Birmingham area. For additional details, go to our online version of the Community Calendar.

Dissect the band name Jazza-Nova, and you get to the musical roots of the Birmingham duo. Dave Miller and Stan Lee created their project a little more than a year ago. Miller had just moved to Alabama from Miami, a city steeped in Caribbean and central and south American rhythms. He was fascinated by the Bossa Nova - and its stark contrast with other latin music. He teamed up with Lee, who brought with him a hand-made classical guitar bought in Spain from a renowned Luthier. You can hear the guitar on this tune -- "Change Partners" - from Jazza Nova's self-titled CD.